Mar. 3, 2014

Jackson Twenty-One, a planned development consisting of homes and shops that is more than 25 years in the making, will open its welcome center this spring off Interstate 195 in Jackson. / ANTHONY PANISSIDI/STAFF PHOTO

JACKSON — If patience truly ranks among the virtues, then Mitch Leigh deserves recognition as a saint. And if you’re not a nice person, then stop reading here.

After 26 years, the 86-year-old Leigh, who composed the Broadway musical “Man of La Mancha,” soon will step closer to realizing his long-elusive venture of building Jackson Twenty-One, a planned downtown-style neighborhood with homes and shops on more than 900 acres in the township.

But it’s intended only for nice people, especially those who love the arts and sports.

“If you’re not a nice person, please don’t call,” said Leigh, at the end of a commercial that advertised Jackson Twenty-One, which aired as part of a campaign to generate interest in the development.

In 1988, Leigh’s grand vision for Jackson Twenty-One — which derives its name from its location’s exit number on I-195 — received township approval. But unlike the smooth tunes of “Man of La Mancha,” the development’s path toward construction held plenty of bumps, including the Great Recession in 2008, which forced Leigh back to the drawing board.

Finally, in 2012, Leigh again obtained township approval for Jackson Twenty-One, but with modified plans, which included 1,514 residential units and 2.9 million square feet of commercial space at its site between West Commodore Boulevard and Freehold Road, across from Glory’s Market — a deli, butcher and liquor store.

Today, at long last, Jackson Twenty-One’s construction site finally bears the beginnings of the development’s welcome center — something real, something tangible, something visible to passers-by and, most of all, something that symbolizes the progress of Leigh’s never-ending quest.

“This project has been so long in the making,” said Tom Bovino, manager of Leigh Realty Co. in Brick, which oversees Jackson Twenty-One. “(The welcome center) is an opportunity to create inertia and hopefully over time that inertia will snowball into a huge success.”

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Jackson Twenty-One’s welcome center will open sometime this spring. It will feature a lobby, sales office and blueprints for existing and planned projects. Right now, it sits as an unfinished dark-green and single-story structure on the construction site. The coming welcome center also remains partially obscured by a rectangular billboard covered by a blue tarp. The billboard advertises the first phase of the development and will do so for future parts of the project as it progresses.

Much to Leigh’s delight, Jackson Twenty-One also will break ground on its first residential buildings this spring, pending a couple of last-minute approvals by the township. The Gardens, one of seven planned sections according to the development’s website, will consist of 510 two-story rental apartments resembling English manor houses in a neighborhood setting, where residents parallel park their cars right in front of their homes, similar to the downtown sections of Belmar and Manasquan.

“There’s a tremendous interest for traditional commercial suburban development, like along Route 9 and Route 70,” Bovino said. “Mitch’s vision is to channel that commercial demand into more of a community design.”

Think something like Long Branch’s Pier Village, but bigger and forget the parking lots. Jackson Twenty-One’s residents will park their cars on the street and walk a few feet to their front door as they would in any other neighborhood.

Future planned portions of Jackson Twenty-One include townhouses, rentals above businesses, live-work units, professional offices, medical offices, banks, restaurants, sports facilities and a movie theater among other aspects. However, the commercial development of the project depends on its success in attracting residents, who would theoretically serve as a stable source of business for shop owners.

Previously published Asbury Park Press stories contributed to this report. Have you seen a construction project in Monmouth or Ocean counties and wanted to know what was being built there? Contact staff writer Anthony Panissidi at 732-643-4284 or apanissidi@gannett.com, and he will look into it for a future column. Visit www.app.com/whatsthere for previous stories.